Thursday, October 04, 2007

Liturgy Seminar getting started

I note that a few comment have finally been posted over at my Liturgy Seminar, which is just in time for our Tuesday event which is tacked on to this year's Octoberfest. The Tuesday seminar will be a wide-open, roundtable discussion of the kinds of things that are on that blog.

In particular, there's already some discussion of

1 - the Greater Gloria (the Gloria in Excelsis), and when it should be used or when omitted

2 - what to do with This Is the Feast (answer: treat it as you would a hymn)

3 - the practice of introducing the Gospel reading with "the continuation of the Holy Gospel . . ." except for Christmas Day, which has "the beginning of the Holy Gospel" and Easter, when it is introduced by "the conclusion of the Holy Gospel."

4 - when the Creed is said

There was some trouble with the "feed" (whatever that is) for awhile, which kept some from commenting. Hopefully that's fixed now. If not, please let me know. To check out the site, click here.

4 comments:

"The conclusion of the Gospel?" But there's still the descent into Hades and the Ascension. Don't Lutherans consider those parts of the Gospel as well? The Orthodox certainly do, and we consider them very important, as well.

This particular rubric is no reflection of any uniform practice among us, but the term "conclusion" is, I believe, merely a reference to fact that it contains the last words of the Gospel of St. Mark, viz., of chapter 16.

To say "there's still the descnt into Hades" is to say that it was subsequent to the resurrection, which is false.

Fritz, what is the source for your detailed rubrics for the Lutheran Divine Service you are mentioning here and on your Liturgy blog? Is there some document that was prepared during the 16th century that set out the rubrics like this? I'd enjoy looking through it.

The rubrics I follow here are drawn from a number of traditional sources, which themselves are mostly agreed, sources from which we glean generally accepted forms of the Western Church. The classical Lutheran source is Piepkorn, Arthur Carl,The Conduct of the Service (1965, recently republished by Redeemer Press in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 2006). There's a review of this work in the most recent issue of Gottesdienst with which I am in complete agreement . . .

Another great Lutheran resource is Paul H.D. Lang, Ceremony and Celebration, originally published in 1965, but also republished by Redeemer Press in Fort Wayne, in 2004.

Then there's Lamburn, E. C. R. (Ritual Notes, eleventh edition, London: Knott, 1964), which is the classical Anglican source, a highly detailed and informative resource. A good Roman Catholic source is Adrian Fortescue, The Mass, published around 1903, containing an abundance of fine historical detail. And of course there's Luther Reed, The Lutheran Liturgy (Philadelphia: Muehlenberg, 1947), but as far as I'm concerned, he can be pretty weak. I'm leaving some out, but I'd say that's the bulk of it.

Some of the rubrics provided in my www.liturgyseminar.blogspot.com blog are also local adaptations of these things, tailored for the architecture of St. Paul's here in Kewanee. For instance, our chancel area is rather small, so certain things are altered a bit. I have made the pulpit and the lectern to serve as extensions of the horns of the altar (from which the readings are supposed to be read). This only works if one's pulpit is on the Gospel side.

About Me

I've been a Lutheran pastor for about 35 years (LCMS), and have been here in Kewanee for about 17 of those years. Did I mention that I'm also the editor-in-chief of Gottesdienst? Check it out at www.gottesdienst.org. If you really want to see more about me, get on that Gottesdienst website and check out my cv.